Amber Books, the award winning imprint of Amber Communications Group, Inc., was announced as an NAACP Image Award winner for “Best Literary Work – Youth/Teens” – for its title, Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons – A Dialogue With America’s Young Leaders by Gregory J. Reed, Esq., and has earned an NAACP Image Award for Literature at the 44th Annual NAACP Image Awards Show, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, February 1, 2013.
Tony Rose, Publisher/CEO, Amber Communications Group, Inc., stated in his acceptance speech, “On behalf of Amber Books, Gregory J. Reed, Esq., and the Keeper of the Word Foundation, we are extremely excited to have been honored with an NAACP Image Award for Literature.” Rose added, “I want to thank God, with whom all things are possible and Gregory J. Reed, Esq., who brought Obama Talks Back, an outstanding and historic collection of student letters to President Barack Obama, and his responses to those students from all across America, along with the President’s speeches, public statements, and quotations during his campaigns and tenure as President of the United States of America, to Amber Books.
Rose stated, “We thank the NAACP Image Awards, The 44th Annual Image Awards Sub-Committee Members, The NAACP Voting Members, our NAACP Image Awards Literary Coordinator, Annette Thomas, for her diligence and hard work on behalf of our African American Literary Community, and I thank my wife, Yvonne Rose, The Associate Publisher of Amber Communications Group, Inc., for her and her editorial and design team’s tireless work, and technical and creative skills, in making a great book even greater”.
Rose further added, “Thank you to everyone who made this outstanding NAACP Image Award in Literature Award possible!!! Thank you.”
Best Literary Work – Youth/Teens:
“Fire in the Streets” – Kekla Magoon (Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing)
* WINNER: “Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons – A Dialogue With America’s Young Leaders” – Gregory Reed (Amber Books)
“Pinned” – Sharon G. Flake (Scholastic Press)
“The Diary of B. B. Bright, Possible Princess” – Alice Randall (Author), Caroline Williams (Author), Shadra Strickland (Illustrator) (Turner Publishing Company)
“The Mighty Miss Malone” – Christopher Paul Curtis (Wendy Lamb Books (Random House Children’s Books)
Other NAACP Image Award recipients included: Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Denzel Washington, “Flight”; Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Viola Davis, “Won’t Back Down”; Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture – Samuel L. Jackson, “Django Unchained”; Best Actress in a Drama Series – Kerry Washington, ABC’s “Scandal”; Best Motion Picture – “Red Tails” and Best Independent Motion Picture – “Beasts of the Southern Wild”; Best Literary Work Fiction – Kimberla Lawson Roby “The Reverend’s Wife”; Best Literary Work Non-Fiction – Jeffrey Toobin “The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court” and Best Literary Work Children’s – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “What Color is My World”.
The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors. The literature award winners were announced during a pre-show star-studded event, at the Shrine Auditorium at 3:00pm, prior to the live show on Friday, February 1, 2013, which aired at 5:00pm PST on NBC.
President Barack Obama achieved a landslide victory in 2008 and 2012. He has touched the lives of young people, more so than any previous president. During his presidency, he sought to continue that inspiration by maintaining an engaged relationship with our nation’s youth.
The outstanding and historic collection of students’ letters in Obama Talks Back, accompanied with President Obama’s responses, speeches, public statements, and quotations during his campaign, tenure as President-Elect, and his presidency, is the most comprehensive collection of letters and responses ever assembled as a book in the history of our nation for a sitting president. The collection of letters featuring the voices of today’s young leaders and President Barack Obama are priceless, timeless, inspiring and powerful.
Obama Talks Back was compiled and written by Gregory J. Reed, Esq and the Keeper of the Word Foundation. Mr. Reed is the award winning author of sixteen books. Gregory J. Reed, Esq.also has a B.S. in Package Engineering from Michigan State University, an M.S. in Packaging Management from Michigan State University, a Law Degree, Juris Doctor, from Wayne State University and a Graduate Law Degree, LL.M, from Wayne State University.
Tony Rose is the Publisher and CEO of Amber Communications Group, Inc., the nation’s largest African-American Publisher of Self-Help Books and Music Biographies. ACGI’s imprints include: the award winning Amber Books Publishing; Colossus Books – Music Biographies; Amber/Wiley Books – Self Help and Financial Books Co-Published with John Wiley & Sons Inc.; Joyner/Amber Books – Co-Publishing with the Tom Joyner Foundation and Desmoon Books – Fiction.
